**FILE** Film legend Greta Garbo, pictured in the 1931 film Susan Lenox (Her Rise and Fall)," was released by Turner Classic Movies. Garbo is the subject of the TCM documentary special "Garbo," about the beautiful and mysterious star who died in 1990. The film from veteran British documentarian Kevin Brownlow premieres Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 8 p.m., EDT. (AP Photo/Turner Classic Movies) less

**FILE** Film legend Greta Garbo, pictured in the 1931 film Susan Lenox (Her Rise and Fall)," was released by Turner Classic Movies. Garbo is the subject of the TCM documentary special "Garbo," about the ... more

This undated publicity photo,provided by Universal Studios Home Entertainment, shows actors Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in the 1944 noir film "Double Indemnity." The movie was released on DVD, in a two-disc version, in August 2006. (AP Photo/Universal Studios Home Entertainment) less

This undated publicity photo,provided by Universal Studios Home Entertainment, shows actors Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in the 1944 noir film "Double Indemnity." The movie was released on DVD, in a ... more

Photo: Universal Studios Home Entertain, Associated Press

Image 5 of 5

Ask Mick LaSalle: Did you catch the flaw in ‘Double Indemnity’?

1 / 5

Back to Gallery

Dear Mick: In “Double Indemnity,” Barbara Stanwyck is in Fred MacMurray’s apartment as Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) is in the elevator to visit Fred. If he sees Barbara there, it’s all over for both killers. Fred blocks Keyes’ view by hiding Stanwyck behind the apartment door facing outward. But no apartment door faces outward for obvious reasons. I’m curious to know how many viewers have caught this flaw.

Art Poretz, Greenbrae

Dear Art: Nobody catches it on first viewing, because the moment is too tense. Viewers are distracted by their identification with MacMurray and Stanwyck. It’s only by reading about it later that we ever find out that apartment doors open in and not out. And even then, if we see “Double Indemnity” again, the moment is just as tense the second time.

Dear Mick: I am always fascinated by the foreigner’s take on Americana, be it novels, breakfast food or cinema. Do the French ever publish your reviews of their movies?

'On the Come Up' Angie Thomas Unveils the Striking Cover For Her Next BookEntertainment Weekly

Tambor says no transparency in his sacking by Amazon from hit TV show "Transparent"Euronews

On movie night, some stars prefer to watch indie films over blockbustersAssociated Press

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux SplitWibbitz

Steven Banks, Mountain View

Dear Steven: There’s no forum for them to publish my reviews, but they did have a chance to publish my book about contemporary French actresses, and they didn’t, which is too bad, because that might have been, like, oh you know, actual money. I have a British friend, a film critic and former publisher, who warned me that the French would never publish a book by an American on a French topic, but of course I didn’t listen to him, because that would have been sensible.

Dear Mick: It was hard for me to accept the portrayal of Olympic official Avery Brundage in “Race.” He is shown going up against Joseph Goebbels prior to 1936. In reality, Brundage was an anti-Semite. How important is it that movies depicting real-life people and events be as accurate as possible?

Dear Jonathan: There are differing opinions on this, and practices vary from generation to generation. It used to be that Hollywood biopics had almost no relationship with the truth, and no one minded. But now, when I see a biopic, I expect it to be true, or at least mostly true; otherwise I feel as if my time has been wasted. A recent example of a waste of time was “Eddie the Eagle,” loosely based on the story of a British skier, but with all the relationships, characters, circumstances and settings changed. What was the point of telling that story?

Good morning, Mick: There have been hundreds of movie remakes over the past 80 years. Are there any films you would like to see remade?

Good morning, Paul: The best movies to remake are movies that weren’t any good to begin with. But how can you tell whether something was mishandled or simply doomed by design? One way to tell is when a bad movie is made from a good novel, which happens often enough. The example that leaps out for me is “Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise” (1931), a very bad 76-minute Greta Garbo movie that was made from the 1,000-page novel of the same name by the muckraking journalist David Graham Phillips. It was a turn-of-the-century panorama about a woman born into poverty who experiences every possible degradation before ending up as a great actress. It would make a great three-hour movie for a young actress of unusual maturity and self-possession — for example, the Nastassja Kinski in the early 1980s, or maybe Adele Exarchopoulos today.

I can also think of a lot of movies made from racy novels or plays, which had to be neutered into respectability. “Kitty Foyle,” for example. Then there’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” which was censored into stupidity and incoherence when Elizabeth Taylor and Burl Ives starred in it in 1958. Jessica Lange and Rip Torn starred in a brilliant TV version in 1984, but I’d like to see a big-screen remake get it right. Perhaps Tommy Lee Jones, who played Brick in 1984, could play Big Daddy in the remake.